The document was released for review and comments two years ago today. If the project is approved, it will rank among the greatest losses to America’s wild horses.
The Proposed Action, Alternative D in the EIS, will effect these changes:
- The Rock Springs Field Office portion of the Adobe Town HMA will become an HA and be managed for zero wild horses. In the Rawlins Field Office portion, all checkerboard land and the area north of the existing Corson Springs southern allotment boundary will become an HA and be managed for zero wild horses. The remainder of the HMA will be managed for an AML of 259 – 536.
- The Divide Basin HMA will become an HA and be managed for zero wild horses
- The Salt Wells Creek HMA will become an HA and be managed for zero wild horses
- The White Mountain HMA will become an HA and be managed for zero wild horses
Resources assigned to the horses may be shifted to wildlife or livestock. (If wildlife could consume that much forage, the ranchers would be screaming for their removal.)
Grazing allotments in the Rock Springs Field Office are shown in this map. Table 3-2 in the EIS shows the allotments that overlap the HMAs.
The allotment master report for the RSFO has 80 listings, including 34 allotments in the Improve category, 17 in the Maintain category and 29 in the Custodial category.
The Rock Springs allotment, in the Maintain category, intersects three of the HMAs.
The largest permit holder, from an AUM viewpoint, is the Rock Springs Grazing Association, instigator of the project. Refer to the executive summary for details.
The terms of the RSGA consent decree and Alternative D in the EIS are not identical.
With 2.6% of the authorized forage assigned to wild horses, the Little Colorado HMA, included in the recent roundup but not in the RMP scope, has, in effect, already been zeroed out.
Western Horse Watchers Association 